Normal for a Trochus to seal itself inside its shell?

[Naja]

Hey guys!

One of my banded Trochus snails seems to have sealed itself inside its shell. It hasn't been moving for a couple of days so I decided to take it out and have a look at it and see if it was dead. My cleaner shrimps have been very curious and nearby it a few times as well.
However when I first started to take it out it seemed like it was just an empty shell, but when I got it out of the water it has actually sealed itself inside the shell. It's a brown film covering the opening, just like you normally see on land snails sometimes. So I guessed it's still alive inside and put it back in the tank. There was no smell coming from it either. It was positioned in a crevice, and it seemed a little stuck, could it be it got itself stuck and decided to seal itself for protection and hope for a better tomorrow? However I can't seem to find any info about this. Is this normal? Or is it a sign something is wrong?

Thanks!

 

[ihavecrabs]

Hey Naja, yeah typically it is not a good sign. They do it to protect themselves (short term, not for more than a few hours) and usually right themselves back up. When you manually right them upright, they'll typically get moving within a few minutes. If not, likely they are dying or dead.

That has been my experience anyway. My favorite snails though.. they do very well in our boxes of water and reproduce as well (Free CUC!) and the fact they can right themselves back up after falling makes life easy on me haha.

 

[Naja]

Ah, thanks! I'll see if he gets up and moving again unfortunately it seems that one of the shrimps managed to knock him into another crevice that I can't get him out from, so hopefully if he's alive he'll manage to get out on his own.
Thanks